BNP Paribas hits back at Wall Street Journal structured products coverage

Serge Troyanovsky, director of equities & derivatives at BNP Paribas in New York, has hit back at the coverage structured products received in the December 9th edition of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the Structured Products Association (SPA) reports. The WSJ piece, titled "Principal-Protected Notes Cap Upside, Carry Big Charges", suggested structured products are a bad deal for investors.

Quoting Janet Tavakoli, president of Chicago-based consultancy Tavakoli Structured Finance, the article asserted that firms are keen to sell notes taken into inventory on a secondary market basis because firms "like to get you to take this burden off their hands." This argument ignores the fact that many firms simply unwind the trade and redeem the note, the SPA says.

Troyanovsky countered the article in a note to clients by arguing that many issuers already provide "investors with products that